The Origins
by Blackdragon8801
Summary: Naruto meets a new friend, one who comes from a misterious clan, and will help him reveal the deepest secrets about Ninja, and where they came from...
1. Chapter 1: A familiar visitor in Konoha!

Disclaimer, I don't own Naruto... I'm using the characters without the owner's permission or knowledge, I don't own any of the characters here excpet for the ones of my own creation (I may use some characters from other places but estrictly in the Naruto reality) This fan-fic may get violent, I don't really know if it will since usually my fan-fic wirte themselves... Anyway this fan-fic starts somewhere after chapter 321 from the Manga...

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The Origins:

Chapter 1: A familiar visitor in Konoha! Old allies and new friends!

The dark forests of the Fire country, dangerous and surrounded by all kinds of dangers, a normal person would have been afraid to travel trough this forests at night. However the travelers that were seen going through the forest tonight were not normal people... Agile, swift and precise, these three travelers that jumped from branch to branch in these massive trees had only one name: Ninja, and there were a lot of them in this world.

When a ninja has an objective, and little time to accomplish it he would not sleep, rest or stop for anything until he completed his mission. This was the case for these three masked figures, all of them wearing sowrds in the back, two of them wearing ninja baggy pants, and typical japanese robes, black sandals with white socks beneath them and using full masks on their faces with forehead metal protectors on them, however, unlike normal head protectors, these didn't posses an emblem on them. Usually, a ninja would wear a head protector with an engraved emblem of their ninja village, however these head protectors were unmarked. The last one of them however, who travelled slightly behind the other two, wore a tight black leather sleeveless leather shirt and black pants that were covered from the knee down by black leg protectors, but the most noticeable aspect of his clothing was the black trenchcoat he wore, that was only colored by the golden symbol of a dragon in both sleeves, the neck the back, the last one covering the most space. He was masked only from the nose down with a thin cloth layer, and left his blonde hair flowing in the cool night air, his blue eyes reflecting no emotion, just like the blue eyes of his two companions.

These three had one target, one objective, one place that none of their clan had seen for a long time:

Konoha...

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"YEEEAAAHHH! I ROCK!" A thousand bunch of young, blonde, blue eyed, identical teenage men screamed as they made their wind chakra flow trough the waterfall once more, cutting it in half.

"Naruto... don't you think it's a little late to be training?" a cloth masked, white haired figure asked one of the blonde boys that stood in the giant trunk. He wore the typical attire of a jounin level Konoha ninja, except that the forehead protector was used to cover one of his eyes "You're gonna tire yourself out..." he said. The boy only answered with a wide smile, and suddenly dissapeared in a cloud of white smoke, followed by the rest of the identical blonde teenage boys standing in that trunk, leaving only one in the end.

"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei...!" the boy said with a grin, "I guess I just got too carried away in my training". It had been 5 days since Naruto had discovered his chakra element, and ever since he had been training everyday to use it. Using his massive amount of Shadow Clones to accelerate his training. While he hadn't managed to produce the technique that would surpass even the great Rasengan and Raikiri techniques, he had become quite good in the use of Wind elemental techniques.

"That's alright, Naruto" Kakashi replied as he jumped off the trunk, followed closely by Naruto. Suddenly Kakashi looked up to the sky and noticed something weird. "The dragon constellation..." Kakashi said in surprise as he looked up in the sky "Its stars are glowing more brightly than usual...". "What was that?" a curious Naruto asked as he turned to the sky as well. "Oh, nothing... Go back to sleep, Naruto" Kakashi said, finally getting into his sleeping bag, and once Naruto had gotten to his sleeping bag as well he turned to the sky again. "At least I hope it's nothing..." Kakashi murmured as he began to fall asleep.

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"KAKASHI- SEMPAI!" A couple of cat masked men, came running from the small forest in the village, running, waking everyone up about an hour after they had gone to sleep "Yamato-sempai!".

Kakashi groaned, and mumbled under his breath however, and just turned to ignore the two men that were disturbing his sleep. While they were ANBU members, and probably whatever they had come to say was a little bit important, he doubted it was as important as his daily sleep. However Yamatou did get up, and turned to both ANBU members. "What's the matter gentlemen!" Yamatou asked as he yawned just a little bit ad rubbed his eyes. "Hokage-sama has asked for your inmediate presence!"the ANBU officer announced with a reverent tone in his voice.

"Arrgghhh..." Naruto groaned, as a complaint to all the noise these two ANBU officers were making "Whatever Tsunade Oba-san wants with us, I'm sure it can wait until tomorow morning...". The kid then yawned and went to sleep again, while the ANBU officers made, under their breaths, offended comments about his great disrespect towards the Hokage.

"I'm sorry, but it can't... Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun..." the ninja replied, nervously "It's about some unexpected visitors we received jus about 15 minutes ago...". "Oh... and who would that be?" Kakashi asked, as he turned towards both ANBU officers, raising an eyebrow in interest.

"Hayabusa ninja... Kakashi-sempai..." at the mention of these words, Kakashi's surprised expression could be seen even trough his cloth mask. Then he slowly got up from his sleeping bag and dusted off his pants. "Lead the way..." he said to the ANBU officer then he turned to Naruto "Let's go, Naruto...". "Damn... And I was having such a good dream about Ramen..." Naruto complained as he got off his sleeping bag as well, yawning and stretching. He then took his orange jumpsuit, the new one he had bought while training with Jiraiya and began to put it on. After a couple of minutes, he was ready.

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"Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto asked as the group leaded by the two ANBU officers advanced trough the forest "What's all this about! Who are these Hayabusa ninja?"."They are a clan, Naruto" Kakashi replied, as he turned and started running backwards while facing Naruto "Much like the Uchiha, or the Hyuuga... except...".

"What!" Naruto asked eagerly "Except what?". "Well, the Uchiha and the Hyuuga clan were great families that in a way... belonged to Konoha, much like any other Ninja clan, that belong to a certain village..." Kakashi eplained, thoughtfully. "So...?" Naruto kept pushing at Kakashi's silence. "So... the Hayabusa is a clan so big and so powerful... that they have their own village, or I should say that at least it used to be a clan so big that they had their own village...". "Why? What happened with it?" Naruto asked in confusion. "Nobody knows..." Kakashi replied "One day the village burnt, and their villagers were nowhere to be found... the only thing left intact in the forest that they inhabited was a graveyard...".

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"UNACCEPTABLE!" the Gondaime's voice was heard all over the building, making everyone tremble at the strenght of her screams "THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED!". In her office, the three mysterious figures that once traveled trough the forest stood before her desk, while the one in the middle, the one with the trenchcoat just handed a folder to the great Sannin. "It's all there, Hokage sama..." the blonde haired man replied. While he looked much younger than Tsunade, even in her young form, he also seemed to be a little bit over the 18 years of age, as far as the cloth mask allowed anyone to see.

"I beg your pardon for such an unreasonable request... but you do know that traditions demand that you fulfill this request..." the young man said, taking a seat in the chair that stood before Tsnuade's desk. "I must ask for your cooperation, Hokage-sama...". "I'm sorry, but our village is already suffering from a shortage of ninja as it is..." Tsunade said as she reclined on her seat, rubbing her forehead with both fingers in a thoughtful expression "I'm afraid that I have no ninja to spare at the moment...".

"You are aware... that Orochimaru and the Akatsuki will be drawn to this as well..." the young man said as he crossed his arms. "As I understand it... that further the interest of some of your... younger talented ninjas...". "You've done your homework, haven't you? You want Naruto..." the Hokage said as she once again sat up straight "Fair enough, but on three conditions... One: You will train him, teach him some Hayabusa techniques, so that he can defend himself against Orochimaru and the Akatsuki...".

"Alright... what's number two?" The Hayabusa clan representative asked as his eyes sparkled in interest. "Two: You will pick from a list of Chuunin that I'm about to give you, three companions for him in this mission..." The great Hokage said, reaching for her files into a folder that spelled 'Chuunin' on the cover.

"And three?" the Hayabusa representative asked, then suddenly there was a big crash in the window, to wich both of the other Hayabusa ninja reacted surprisedly, while the Hayabusa representative and Tsunade, didn't even blink or take their eyes off each other. Then Naruto came rolling into the room, followed by the two ANBU officials that guided him, who were now trying to catch him. Then Kakashi and Yamatou came trough the window as well, walking normally from the balcony.

"Condition three: Naruto must agree to do this..." Tsunade said as she signaled the ANBU officers to leave the room...

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"WHAT!" Naruto yelled angrily, once Tsunade had explained the details to him.

The Hayabusa Ninja Clan had come to Konoha to make a request, since tradition demanded that Konoha had a long time debt with the Hayabusa Clan (for reasons Tsunade refused to explain), it was established that the Konoha Hidden village had to fulfill any of the Hayabusa's request. So, he was being sent on a mission to help the Hayabusa Ninja Clan against some... unknown threat.

"I'm supposed to be loking for Sasuke! I'm supposed to be fighting those Akatsuki bastards!" Naruto protested "I'm not going to be the errand boy for these clowns...". Naruto's yelling had been loud, really loud. However the while the two Ninja's that stood next to the young representatives spoke. The young blonde man sitting on the chair was mostly unaltered. At the end of Naruto's statement, he only replied "So that's why they call him 'The Loudest Ninja in Konoha...'" to this, an enraged Naruto tried to punch the Hayabusa, only to be stopped by the sword of one of the other touching the skin of his neck.

"Listen, Naruto..." Tsunade explained seriously as she stood from her desk staring into the night sky trough the window "I would never send you to any mission like that without taking that in mind..."."That's right, kid" the Hayabusa ninja said "We picked you for this mission because, this threat that Tsunade described, is in fact so big that it will definitely call the attention of Orochimaru and The Akatsuki... and if Orochimaru is called by this threat then... so will be the Uchiha kid".

"What!" Naruto said, inmediately calming down after hearing these words. "And why would you take me?" Naruto asked him in doubt. "Because... you may one day become as strong as him...!" The Hayabusa ninja replied, by pointing to a picture of the Yondaime "My name is Maki... Maki Hayabusa...".

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki..." he replied "The future Hokage of this village!".

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The night after that Naruto slept on his own house, the little apartment that he had been given by the Sandaime Hokage many years ago. After a while of rolling and thinking over and over in his head what this mission would be like, caused by the announcement that the details of this mission were to be undisclosed until they left the village, he finally managed to sleep. For about 8 hours his sleep was peaceful. And then...

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_RYUU..._

_What was that voice, that called from nowhere, who were they calling for?_

_RYUU..._

_Why was that name so familiar to him, Naruto kept turning around as he floated in the darkness of his own dreams. A number of violent images suddenly crossed trough Naruto's mind, as he saw a Ninja battle trough many battles, and after cutting trough the darkness that had cursed him for long, he finally retired to the shadows. Like a ninja should... specially..._

_A dragon ninja..._

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Naruto slowly opened his eyes only to find himself facing the smiling unmasked face of a very familiar ninja. The Hayabusa ninja that he had met yesterday. Maki...

"HAYABUSA-SAN!" he yelled as he suddenly realized that there was a man he barely knew standing over his bed and watching him sleep "GET AWAY FROM ME!".

"Sorry, kid, but I can't do that!" The Hayabusa ninja replied as he handed Naruto his clothes "It's time for us to puzzle our team together!".

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There! It's done... the first chapter of what will become an epic fan-fiction... I hope...

If anyone spots any mistakes, on gramathic, spelling or otherwise... please let me know so I can correct it, I promise it won't always be as boring I just needed to make this intoductory chaper.

Also... this fan-fic is meant to become a NaruHina, but first I needed some ground to get the story going... You'll see...

**NEXT CHAPTER:**

The team is puzzled together, who will be the members of this Ninja dream team?


	2. Chapter 2: Konoha's best and finest! Th

I like the fact that so many people have read the chapter already! nn

Here goes the second chapter!

Give me reviews... please! I know there's gotta be something wrong with my style or my english, since I'm not a native English speaker... so...

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**The Origins:**

**Chapter 2: Konoha's best and finest! The Chuunin dream team!**

Naruto Uzumaki had quickly got dressed and ready once that he found there was no point in resisting his new 'friend', Maki Hayabusa, who had just arrived to the town had investigated every detail of his personality. And had made a proposal that Naruto couldn't refuse. 'The faster we get the team formed the faster we all eat Ramen, my treat of course'. Naruto had a war inside his head right now, one scolding himself for falling so easily to such a dumb way of persuasion, while the other just rubbed his belly and drooled over the idea of eating Ramen.

"So... How are we gonna form this team!" Naruto asked as he and the Hayabusa ninja jumped from rooftop to rooftop, speeding towards their goal. "Well, Hokage-sama has granted me access only over some Chuunin... so, I don't really know who to pick, since we had actually only Jounin in mind for this team..." Maki replied, concernedly "We need someone that can puzzle a descent team from the Chuunin in this village. We need someone who is smart, cunning and tactical, and also who knows the Chuunin of this village better than anyone else...". Both blondes, jumped thoughtfully over the rooftops while they thought who would pick. Then Naruto had an idea, like a lightbulb that suddenly turned on inside his head "FOLLOW ME!". Maki followed Naruto to a very small household, in wich they quickly spotted two men playing shogi, one easily in his late 20's, with a tanned skin and a muscular body, his hair spiked over his forehead protector, with a cigarrete on his mouth, while the other was in his teens obviously, thin, had long hair bound in a traditional japanese pony tail.

"HEY, SHIKAMARU!" The loudest ninja in Konoha yelled as both him and Maki landed swiftly on the zen garden, near the pond. "Yo, Naruto!", the teen ninja greeted him with a simple wave of his hand, not bothering to look up, obviously focused in his game. Sarutobi Azuma, the older ninja however, turned to look at both of their new visitors, inmediately recognising one of them. "Maki Hayabusa" Azuma said, so surprised that he almost dropped the cigarrete out of his mouth "My god you've grown". Recognising the surprised tone of his master's voice, and knowing he wasn't easily surprised, Shikamaru turned to look at the face of the blonde ninja standing besides Naruto. He had blue eyes, but not as deeply blue as Naruto's, his eyes were a bit more greenish than those of the loudest ninja in Konoha, his black clothes however made him look a bit intimidating despite the fact that he was not wearing the cloth mask.

"Greetings, Azuma-san!" Maki said as he bowed respectfully "I see you've changed a lot too...". "No I haven't" Azuma replied "How is your father?". "My father is well, he sends his greeting to you and wished to express his sorrow over the death of your father... our entire clan does" Maki said, still not lifting his head. "Thank you..." Azuma replied simply "So, what brings you here to Konoha?". Maki answered Azuma's question by handing him a scroll, wich was sealed by golden ring that was held together by a dragon shaped golden token.

"Oh, I see... so, what did Hokage-sama said about this..." Azuma asked as he finished reading the document. "She has granted me a total of 1 Genin and 5 Chuunin for this mission, the Genin was Naruto, according to my mission specification, however I'm completely ignorant about the Konoha Chuunin, so...". "So, you need me..." Shikamaru completed the sentence, with a grin on his face "Then let's do it!".

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And then, there were three...

The three ninja jumped over the rooftops of the village in direction to the center to pick the second member of the team. Since Shikamaru was chosen as the first thanks to Azuma's reccomendation. As Shikamaru read the mission specifications, he started off by heading towards the hospital signaling for the other two to follow.

"First requirement for this mission oif you ask me, is a Medical Ninja..." Shikamaru read from the book as they landed on the hospital rooftops "Since we are only allowed to take Chuunins, our choice is pretty obvious...". "Haruno Sakura..." Maki replied, grinning at Shikamaru, he had read and understood the missions specification in a matter of minutes, it was amazing. After reading the mission specifications, Shikamaru actually felt something of a void in the pit of his stomach, but he only yawned and commented on how troublesome this would be.

"Well then let's go get Sakura-chan..."Naruto said as he jumped trough the hospital's windows. A great turmoil was heard underneath, and suddenly there were noises of crashes and explosions all over the place, ending with a very battered up Naruto suddenly flying off to the sky creating a hole with his shape in the rooftop, and a very mad pink haired, red dressed girl with green eyes coming out of to the rooftops trough that very same hole.

"Oh, wow, and she's strong too..." Maki said amused as he saw Naruto's fast descent and fall to the ground then he turned to the pink haired girl and bowed respectfully, making Sakura blush at her own lack of manners, she bowed as well and then they looked into each other eyes "Greetings, Haruno-san, my name is Maki Hayabusa, I'm here to offer you the opportunity you've been waiting for...".

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And then, there were four...

Four ninja now jumped over the rooftops, after Maki had explained to Sakura the same thing that he had explained to Naruto (wich was not much, but still enough to convince her) they had embarked in the search of the next member of the team following Shikamaru.

"Are you sure that Orochimaru and Sasuke-kun will be interested in this?" Sakura asked as she followed the Hayabusa ninja from behind. "Possitive!" Maki replied, smiling. Sakura felt reassured, but not entirely, the details of the missions were unknown to anyone but Shikamaru and Maki . "This guy gives a strangely good aura... I think we can trust him for now, but I'll wait until I hear the mission specifications" Sakura thought.

"Now... Second requirement! That would be... a tracker and a good sneeker... Normally I would say we choose Kiba and Ino, since they're both the good at those jobs... but since we have limited crew space, I say we need... Aburame Shino!" Shikamaru announced as they changed course towards the Aburame household.

The hooded boy and the half faced covered father meditated among swarms of bugs on their house's garden. While Shino wore a gray hoody that covered most of his face and his hair and sunglassed that covered his eyes, the father wore almost the same, except he didn't wear the hood on.

"Hey, Shino!" Shikamaru called as they landed on the outer wall "We've got a mission, we'll need to head out now...".

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And then, there were five...

"So a mission with the legendary Hayabusa clan..." Shino commented as he jumped the buildings next to Naruto, both of them falling a little bit behind the rest of the group. "Hmm? You've heard about these guy's clan, Shino?" Naruto asked, noticing the comment. "Yes, I have, though it's not much... they are said to be masters of the sword..." Shino replied, his expression invisible trough his gray hoody. "Hmmm, that would explain why that guy always carries his sword with him" Naruto commented "Still, if he can lead us to Sasuke..." Naruto commented, Shino only nodded.

"Third requirement in my list..." Shikamaru announced making another course shift "We need a scroll and weapon's expert, and our obvious choice would be Tenten". The headed towards the forest in wich Rock Lee trained, knowing that the bun haired girl would probably be helping him. However, they found her alone this time, Lee had gone off to run 5 laps around the village in a hand stand using only his pinky fingers apparently...

"Tenten!" Sakura yelled from a tree as they called on to her, seeing the entire group of known comrades, and the new face among them, Tenten couldn't help but think this would be interesting.

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And then, there were six...

"So, a special mission for the Hayabusa clan, on request of Hokage herself, huh?" Tenten asked Sakura as they both kept running behind the Hayabusa ninja and the great shadow tactician. "Do you truly believe this will help you find Sasuke, Sakura-chan?"

"I don't know yet, but given the circumstances, and the fact that Tsunade-sensei completely trusts him..." she explained as they kept jumping from rooftop to rooftop, "I think it's worth a shot!" she finally said with a determined look. "Alright! If you're in, I'm in" Tenten and Sakura had grown to appreciate each other as friends over the last 3 years, ever since Tsunade had begun to train Sakura as Medical Nin, while Tenten often came to the Great Slug Sannin for advice. Their friendship had grown stronger than Sakura had realized, until now.

"How about the fourth requirement on your list?" Naruto asked, realizing that they had already been running for too long. "Well that's the hard part..." Maki said as they suddenly stopped again on the center of the city. "Why is that the hard part?" Naruto asked "What do we need?".

"What's going on, why did we stop?" Tenten asked, as the 6 ninja gathered on the rooftop of the Hokage office. "Apparently, our great leaders here are having a har time picking up the last member of the group..." Naruto said, pointing to Shikamaru and Maki . "Why, what is the last thing we require...". "Well, our last requirement is... a scout..." Shikamaru announced "Someone that can see further than we can, that can warn us about danger, and also who is good in a fight...". "So, why not just take Neji?" Naruto asked in confusion. "Hyuuga Neji would be an excellent choice!" Maki replied "Except for the fact that he's a Jounin, and thus out of our league...". "Oh, right!" Naruto said, remembering that he had already been told this.

"Then perhaps... Hinata..." Tenten proposed shyly. Making everyone turn to look a her...

"Hyuuga Hinata..." Shikamaru thought out loud "I'm not sure if she's strong enough for this kind of mission...". "What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked "Of course she is!". "Naruto!" Shino interrupted the disccusion abruptly "While I do trust Hinata, and she's my friend too... I can't help but admit that perhaps Shikamaru is right... Hinata doesn't handle well under pressure...". Suddenly a disccusion between the Konoha ninja erupted, each one giving different views, while Sakura, Naruto and Tenten mostly defended Hinata, Shikamaru and Shino argued that she may not be able to handle the mission. Eventually the Hayabusa ninja got tired.

"ENOUGH!" the Hayabusa ninja suddenly screamed, startling everyone around him, the scream had been defening and imponent... And he had now chaged his stance and look to more stern ones, inspiring a true sense of authority towards the others.

"This Hyuuga girl, she posseses the Byakugan... right?" Maki asked as he turned to look at Shikamaru and Shino, who both nodded. "But she's not good under pressure..." Maki said turning to look at Sakura and Tenten, who both nodded as well. "Naruto..." Maki said as he approached him directly "Do you trust this Hyuuga girl? Even though you know this may be a really dangerous mission?".

"I do!" Naruto replied clenching a fist near his face and giving a determined look. "Then that's it" Maki said as he turned his back to the team and turned to look at the village of Konoha. Then he pointed his finger in direction to the great building that was the Hyuuga household. "Let's go to the Hyuuga clan house!". After yelling out thes instruction Maki jumped off the rooftop towards the next one. Followed closely by Naruto and the rest of the team after them.

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In a large room in the Hinata household, the head of the Hyuuga ninja clan, Hiashi, a tall and muscular man with long hair and tanned skin, agreed to receive the representative of the Hayabusa. Naruto and the whole rest of the team, however, was forced to wait outside, since they apparently lacked the social rank that a member of the Hayabusa ninja clan possesed. While they had complained loudly about it (everyone except Shino, of course...), they finally agreed to let it pass. But Naruto hated people like that.

Once Maki was called in, he sat in front of Hyuuga Hiashi himself, unexpectedly it was Hiashi who started the conversation.

"So, the Hayabusa clan asks for the help of the Hyuuga..." Hyuga Hiashi said as Maki sat right in front of him, while the rest of the team waited outside the room. "Yes, Hyuuga-sama... The Hayabusa clan humbly requests that you lend us a hand in this time of need..." Maki replied, bowing slightly with his head. While Hiashi sat in front of him just looking at him, examining him with those almost completely white eyes, though most people said it was a pale lavender color.

"Hayabusa-kun..." Hiashi began talking while his look remained unshifted "I understand that you are in need, but you haven't specified in need of what... Now as you may very well know, as the head of a Konoha clan, I cannot dishonor my village or my clan to negate such request, however I must know first what is being asked of our clan". "I understand Hyuuga-sama" The hayabusa ninja answered the question by handing over a scroll to the head of the Hyuuga clan. Hiashi received the scroll, and opened it, then proceeded to carefully read it.

"This mission is dangerous..." Hiashi said, once he finished reading the scroll "Who are you requesting for this mission?". "A chuunin, sir" Maki replied taking the scroll back "Hyuuga Hinata to be precise...". "I understand..." Hiashi said, and then looked down "However, I relieved Hinata from any obligations to the clan a long time ago... If you wish to take her, then you'll have to aske her yourself".

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"We have to WHAT!" Naruto asked once Maki had returned to tell the rest of the team how things had gone with Hiashi "That's it!". Naruto just smiled thinking on how wasy that would be, however, it was Shikamaru who wiped the smile out of his face.

"Oh god, how troublesome is that!" Shikamaru complained as he sat outside the mansion, sitting on a rock besides a pond in the garden. "What do you mean by that!" Naruto asked, trying to get a response from Shikamaru. "It would have been easier, you know?" Shikamaru said "If his father had ordered her to come she would have had no choice... now we have to convince her to come... that's gonna be troublesome". "What!" Naruto asked, still not getting the point. "Well, Hinata's never been the decisive type..." tenten commented, a little bit ashamed to be the one saying it.

"Fine! I'll convince her where is she!" Naruto asked, Tenten pointed in the direction where Hinata and Neji usually trained, Naruto without waiting one second headed for that direction.

"Hmmm! That guy is so predictable..." Shikamaru grinned as he saw Naruto leave, knowing he had achived his goal. "You knew he was going to do that if you acted like that, didn't you?" Shino asked, while he took a seat in arock next to Shikamaru. "So, you guys were lying about Hinata?" Maki asked doubtfully. "No" Shikamaru replied smiling "She really is undecisive, but out of all of us, the one with a better shot of convincing him is Naruto!". "Oh...!" Maki said as he understood what it was about, while all the shinobi ninja grinned, since they all knew what Shikamaru meant.

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A kick, a back flip, a hand spin, a swift kick... Neji was amazed with how much Hinata's taijutsu had improved over the years, however, she still held back too much on her movements, she still was not letting herself go, and that's why Neji could always find it, that opening that allowed him to strike with his Jyuuken in a vital spot. It was over, Hinata was dead...

At least she would be if that had been a real fight, ever since Neji had fallen under the good grace of Hiashi, he had been training all day with him, and all afternoons with Hinata. Helping her improve the various techniques she had already developed on her own. The Shugohakke Rokujo Yonsho for example, was a technique so unique to Hinata that Neji couldn't even imitate it no matter how hard he tried. Hinata was talented and creative in ways he was not, however she still held back too much. He could hear Hinata breath heavily after the sparring match. She was exhausted, that was enough for today.

"Hinata-sama... I think we've had enough practice for one day" Neji announced, as he picked up his towel and dried his sweat. The blue haired girl only replied by closing her lavender eyes and smiling lightly. Then she grabbed her own towel and began drying as well, Hinata was so flustered by all the excercise of the practice that she even removed her usual baggy jacket, leaving on only a white sleeveless top, that revealed her developed figure over the years. She had grown, at least she thought so, not as 'fully' as she would have wanted, but still she had grown, and pretty finely in her opinion, she had managed to adquire a thinner more slender figure than Sakura or Ino. Maybe next time she saw Naruto...

_Maybe next time, he'll like me..._

Hinata suddenly stopped herself for a moment, what was she thinking! She began to dry the sweat on her body, starting from the neck to the back of the head and finishing with the face. However while she was drying her face she heard Neji greeting someone in the distance.

"HEY, NARUTO!" Neji yelled, somehow uncharacteristically joyful "Over here!". Hinata couldn't believe it, she hoped Neji was just joking, just trying to tease her, after all, he knew she liked Naruto, right?

"Yo, Neji!" Naruto replied the salute joyful as well "How have you been, I hadn't seen you since we came back from Sunogakure".

_This can't be happening. Naruto-kun, here? But why? how? I'm definitely not removing this towel... He can't see me like this..._

"Hey, Neji!" Naruto said, oblivious to the figure that was drying her hair right behind him "Have you seen Hinata? I'm kinda' loooking for her...".

_For me! He can' be looking for me. He barely knows I exist. Oh, please god, don't let this be a dream, this can't... this can't..._

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked as he removed the towel unceremoniously from Hinata's face, uncovering the lavender eyed girl and staring, staring right into her eyes...

_Naruto-kun's eyes... They're so... blue... so..._

That was it for Hinata, inmediately after looking at Naruto's eyes she passed out. Joy and embarassment overcoming her whole being.

------------------------

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked once the Hyuuga girl finally woke up, a couple of minutes after "You must have passed out from exhaustion... You look tired...". "Na... N-Naruto-kun...". Hinata's views started to clear, and suddenly she saw the most beautiful blonde vision she had ever seen. She suddenly realised that he was holding her in his arms, and that she was laying on the floor. Inmediately she woke up turned around and apologized.

"Gomen, N-Naruto-kun... I-I didn't mean to..." Hinata couldn't stop her blushing despite her recent attack of anemia. "What, faint?" Naruto asked confused. "It's alright, we all pass out from exhaustion from time to time, no need to apologize for it!" Naruto said joyfully. Hinata was glad, he thought it was for exhaustion. And he was concerned about it.

"Where's Neji-nii-san" Hinata asked, trying to change the subject before she blushed even further. "He went to talk to Hiashi, he said you'd be ok, then murmured somthing about leaving us alone to talk". Naruto said, Hinata could only giggle at Naruto's naiveness. Wich caught Naruto by surprise.

"Hey, I had never seen you laugh" Naruto said, "you should do it more often". Hinata blushed deeper at that comment and then quicly tried to change the subject "S-So Naruto-kun, Wha-I mean why are you... I mean... W-What brings you here?".

_Damn, why don't you stutter some more, and then he'll think you're a perfect dork... He probably's already thinks so..._

"Well, Hinata-chan! I'm here for you!" Naruto replied, pointing at her with the finger, "I need your help...".

_What? He needs my help? I get to help my dear Naruto kun? What does he need my help for? What could he possibly... well... You could try asking, you idiot..._

"W-What is it that you need my help with...?" the blue haired girl asked, while she toyed with her short hair. "Ah... well, it's a really dangerous mission..." Naruto replied "Though I'm not sure what it is, exactly, jeje...". "Apparently we are going to be working with some guy named Maki Hayabusa" Naruto continued at the lack of a response "It's going to be a long mission apparently, about 6 months and it's...".

"OK" Hinata said without even thinking about it. She then realised what she had done, leaving Naruto with a surprised look on his face.

_Oh no, this is not good, I rushed it... You idiot, you rushed it! I mean, ok... You're gonna be spending 6 months with Naruto, but couln't you have been more patient? Now he's gonna know, and he's gonna back out and he's gonna reject me!_

"GREAT!" Naruto said as he jumped up in a sign of victory "The Chuunin Dream Team is complete now, and the other guys thought that you weren't decisive! JAJAJA". Naruto then took Hinata's hand and began dancing in joy, then grabbed her down the road to see the rest of the team.

_Whew, he didn't notice..._

_Damn, he didn't notice..._

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There we go, Chapter 2, this one took about 3 hours in the making... But I think it was worth it...

Now, I have tow favors two ask

Reviews and Reviews, oh, and also a beta reader, any takers?

**Next chapter:**

The mission disclosed to the team, who stays on board? Is Hinata up to the challenge? A kiss between Hinata and Naruto!


	3. Chapter 3: The mission is revealed!

Thanks everyone for your reviews!

causeiambetta: I'll take your advice under consideration! Thanks, dude...! And about the beta thing... somebody beat you to it, sorry.

Dragon Man 180: Stop trying to predict things... But keep the reviews coming!

Now, I know that around this chapter, Shikamaru and Azuma are supposed to be hunting two of the Akatsuki down... but... I'll just pretend that I don't know what happened... nn!

For those of you, who haven't read the Manga, I reccomend logging into http/ Origins

**Chapter 3: The mission is revealed! Let's drink to our new Chuunin team!**

"OK, so... are you gonna tell us what the mission is now?" Sakura asked in curiosity once Hinata was brought to the team. "No, not here... Come on, we have to move now. This way!" Maki jumped to the rooftops once more, and was instantly followed by Shikamaru and Shino, after them Sakura and Tenten followed, finally Naruto decided to follow, however Hinata hesitated. "Hey! Hinata, come on! Aren't you coming?" Naruto yelled at her from a distance. "I-I... yes... be right there... it's just that... my clothes..." Hinata said, since she still had the outfit that she had used to work out with Neji, wich was a little bit more revealing than her usual clothes. "Leave it at that! You look fine!" Naruto replied, then he jumped away, Hinata followed inmediately, blushing as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop trough the city of Konoha.

_N-Naruto-kun thinks I look fine! Naruto-kun thinks I look fine! Well, that's what he said, isn't it? But then again, he might have said it just to hurry me up... Still, it's nice to hear those words from Naruto-kun._

"Very well! Here!" Maki said as he arrived to the forest of Konoha and kept running among the trees until he found a clearing in the woods "There, we can stop now!". "Good... because I was starting to get tired" Tenten commented once they finally stopped running, Shikamaru just sat down in the floor with his back on one of the trees, putting his hands behind his head and taking a breath, the rest of the team just stood there waiting for the black clothed Hayabusa ninja to speak. Hinata and Naruto arrived last, it seemed that since Hinata had fallen behind a bit, Naruto had waited for her for a few seconds, so she wouldn't have to run alone. "So... tell us..." Sakura said, finally taking a seat as Shikamaru did.

"Fine... Our mission is this..." Maki said, pulling out yet another scroll from his trenchcoat and extending it, showing the image of a black, flame shaped sword, engraved with seals. "The Black Dragon sword..."Maki expliaed as he handed the scroll to Tenten, so that the team could take a good look at it. "It's an old family heirloom of our clan, and it was stolen from us 3 days ago by members of an Oni worshipping Ninja cult..." he explained. "What!" Naurot asked in disbelief, obviously angry "Are you telling me that this GREAT mission you were recruiting us for, was only about retrieving and old relic from a bunch of fanatics!". "Calm down, I gave you my word that this mission was important enough to call for Orochimaru's and te Akatsuki's attention, and it is..." Maki said, scratching his head and smiling "It had been thought that this sword was destroyed many years ago, by my father, in his early years as a ninja. But before that happened, every single ninja in this world hoped to get a hand on the sword, since it was said that it contained the powers of the most powerful demon in history...". "So..." Naruto said, not understanding the point that the Hayabusa Ninja was trying to make. "So, once Orochimaru hears that the sword still exists..." Sakura said with a smile on her face "He'll probably want it... and since he can't send any of his usual, dumb, sound nin. He'll have to send someone he can trust, he'll have to send his best man, Sasuke. Or maybe, he'll come for it himself...".

"You better hope that he sends Sasuke, I don't think anyone here could deal with Ofrochimaru... ja ja ja!" Maki said, bursting Sakura's bubble with a laugh "Still, I think our clan might be able to guarantee Sasuke's presence...". "How would you do that!" Shino asked, finally joining in the conversation. "Orochimaru believes that he has a spy working in our clan... that way, we have been able to feed him with wrong intelligence for some time, and that's how we've kept him from getting the Black Dragon Sword..." Maki replied "If that spy comes in contact with Sasuke, and tells him that the power of the sword is enough for him to beat Itachi on his own... then Sasuke might...".

"He'll definitely come! Even if Orochimaru tells him not to!" Naruto said excitedly. "Very well, then" Maki asked as the rest of the team smiled upon Naruto's determination "Who's in?".

At this point, nobody dared say no.

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Hasashi Hayabusa stood in the office of the Gondaime, handing over a scroll to her. I had been his appointed mission by the clan leader since the moment they had left home. to deliver this scroll exclusively to Tsunade. Once the scroll was handed, the Hayabusa ninja left, his instructions were not to look at the contents of this scroll.

"What does it say, again?" Shizune asked in disbelief, as Tsunade once again started to read in a loud voice the scroll handed to her. "It's a private message from Ryuu Hayabusa himself, stating that his son Maki, is really..." Tsunade dared speak no more, she couldn't believe it "Impossible...". "If this message is real, then... we cannot allow this to go any further..." Shizune insisted, however, Tsunade didn't listen. "No! We will continue with this course of action, but we will have a little surprise waiting for them... send for Neji!" Tsunade ordered, then a slight grin crossed her face as she said lowly "So, that's why he wanted Naruto...".

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"CHEERS!" The newly formed group of Chuunin said in unison as they clashed their glasses together, after the mission briefing, Naruto's enthusiasm had built greatly, wich somehow transmitted to the other members. Namely, Tenten and Sakura, who decided they should celebrate in Tenten's place the forming of this new team, at this proposal, Naruto jumped in delight, commenting they should all go eat some Ramen too. He quickly sent his Kage Bushins to Ichiraku Ramen, and used them to bring in everone's food. Shino had said little, but agreed to join the celebration, Hinata only stuttered, since it was Naruto himself who had asked him to come, Shikamaru said that, while it would be troublesome, he couldn't turned down free drinks and food, and Maki just nodded and smiled.

Now they were in Tenten's place, all of them eating Ramen and drinking beer (I know that in the past, they have all refused to drink alcoholic drinks... but come on, they're 16 years old now, what 16 year old teenager refuses beer?) from their glasses, while Naruto and Shikamaru spoke with each other about past missions, and Shino listened to the conversation, while not really making much input, and Maki told stories about his numerous deeds as a ninja to Sakura and Tenten, the latter listening intently while blishing slightly. Hinata, just ate, and then turned to look at a spot in the floor that she had found rather interesting and then took little sips of beer. Then she felt someone tap on her shoulder.

"Hinata-chan" Sakura asked, while seating right next to her with a concerned look on her face "Are you alright?". "A-Ah... Sakura-san..." Hinata said as she awkwardly tried to articulate her thoughts "I-I'm fine, thanks, it's just... I'm not used to this kind of celebration, you know?". "Oh, don't worry, it's not like we're gonna eat you alive, you know? You need to loosen up..." Sakura said, smiling while she took another drink from her glass of beer. "I know... i-it's just that..." Hinata tried to find an excuse for her social clumsiness, finding none she just stayed silent for another 20 seconds, until Sakura spoke. "It's Naruto, isn't it?" Sakura asked whispering. Upon hearing this, Hinata blushed furiously "Eh, no it's nothing like that... I-I...". As Hinata tried to deny it, she realised by Sakura's grin that it was pointless, so she gave up. "How... How d-did you, Sakura-san?".

"Are you kidding me, Hinata? I don't think anyone in Konoha hasn't realised, you've been staring at him since day one in the academy..." Sakura replied while patting Hinata's back "The only one stupid enough not to notice, much to your misfortune, has been Naruto himself...". Hinata smiled inwardly, she remembered, she actually did remember day one in the ninja academy. When she had met Naruto, when she had liked him. Like Naruto, Hinata had been underestimated her whole life. In spite of the fact that she came from a very powerful clan, Hinata had always been cast aside, hated, ignored even by those of her own family. Seeing Naruto's determination, even in these hard conditions had called her attention. Everyone doubted Naruto, but Naruto never doubted himself, and he never doubted her either, those few times that he had been there to support, that's why she liked him. Even now, 6 years later...

"You're so in love..." Sakura said, taking Hinata out of memory lane. "I-I... I am..." Hinata said, and then her smile faded and a sad expression crossed her face "But... it's you that Naruto-kun wants... Sakura-san". "Ha! Silly girl..." Sakura said, slightly chuckling at the comment, "It's true that Naruto used to have a crush on me when we were little... but it passed, really... Naruto has always needed a family really, wich is why, right now he thinks of me as a sister..." Sakura's expression then turned a little sad too "And that's also why Sasuke is like his brother...".

"Sakura-san..." Hinata said, noticing Sakura's sad expression, but then Sakura shaked her head and slapped her face with both hands. "No! It's not time to be sad! This new team is gonna do it's best! We're gonna find Sasuke this time! RIGHT!" Sakura asked, turning to Hinata with a smile, Hinata could only nod, smiling. "Let's make a deal Hinata, you help me find Sasuke, and I'll do my best to help you with Naruto, alright?" sakura asked, while extending her hand to Hinata. "Deal..." Hinata said, smiling, blushing slightly and shaking her hand with Sakura's. "Let's drink to that!" Sakura said smiling.

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"I trust that you understand the importance of the mission I've handed to you, Neji-kun" Tsunade said to the lavender eyed jounin standing in her office. Neji nodded, his expression as serious as always. "I understand, Hokage-sama..." Neji replied "As I understand it, this mission will be carried out in the Lightning country in 2 days, right?". "That's right... it's hostile territory, so be careful..." Tsunade replied, her expression as serious as Neji "And make sure to keep our loudest ninja safe...". "I will" Neji replied, smiling as he walked out the door. Once he left, Shizune entered the room.

"Tsunade-sensei, are you sure about this decision?" Shizune asked as she closed the door. "I'm sure Shizune... there's something about these kids... They're different from other nija's we've had..." Tsunade replied, a smile crossing her face.

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A couple of hours, and a lot of drinks later, the Chuunin dream team was... well... a bit drunk. While most of them were just a bit dizzy, and laughing at almost anything. Shino had already stopped drinking and now just sat on a corner, no one really knowing if he was awake or asleep. Shikamaru didn't change a lot with alcohol, except for the fact that he smiled a bit more. Sakura, Hinata, Tenten, Shikamaru, Naruto and Maki however, were playing cards. BlackJack to be precise, however, since there was no money to bet they were betting drinks. You lost, you drank either that, or you took a punishment... Hinata was feeling a little more unhibited than usual, wich was not saying much, but still...

_This is not so bad... Now I understand why some people drink...This is fun..._

"Your turn, Naruto" Shikamaru said as he dealt Naruto his two cards. Both open, they were already disregarding the basic rules of the game. "Alright! Only 5, hit me!" Naruto said, Shikamaru responded by dealing another card. "8! Hit me!" Naruto said again, and Shikamaru dealt yet another card. "14! Hit me!" Naruto said again, and when the last card came it was... "24! You're death!" Sakura laughed out loud. "Oh, man! I don't think I can take another drink... I'll take a punishment!". "Alright! The great Naruto takes the punishment, any recomendations?" Maki announced. Tenten and Sakura, who had became the offical 'boy punishers' (meaning they picked the punishments for the boys, you filthy people!), gathered and decided a punishment. "Alright, and the punishment is..." Sakura and Tenten both said in unison as they pointed at Naruto "Naruto will perform a dance for us!".

And so, the party went on... after Naruto's silly dance, Shikamaru had lost his game too, and had to sing a song for the group, he complained endlessly about how troublesome it was, but ended up doing it, embarassed as hell. Then Maki's turn came, and he chose to take a drink, since he was not as much of an amateur at drinking as the rest. Then Sakura's turn came, and she had to kiss a picture of Jiraiya that no one really knew where Tenten had pulled it from. Tenten's turn came and she just drank, taking it as well as Maki, and then it was Hinata's turn.

"Alright, Hinata! Here it goes..."Naruto said as he dealt the cards to the blue haired girl. "That's 4 or 14!" Naruto announced when Hinata's cards were revealed, an ace and a three. "Hit me..." Hinata said, a bit shy, but not as much as usual. "8 or 18!" Naruto announced after pulling a four. "Hit me." Hinata replied. "12!" Naruto said, pulling out a 5. "Hit me!" Hinata said, each time more excited porbably from the effects of the alcohol. "17!" Naruto pulled out another 5. "21!" Naruto said. "And the dealer's got...!" Naruto then pulled proceeded to pull out his own cards wich turned out to be an ace and a king. "BLACKJACK! Dealer wins!".

"Will you take your drink or your punishment?" Sakura asked as she saw Hinata, who seemed to be hesitating. "I-I... I'll take the punishment..." Hinata said. Naruto, Shikamaru and Maki then gathered, trying to decide what would be the punishment for Hinata. Finally they decided... "Hinata will have to keep her balance on this... for 20 seconds" Naruto said, pulling out a baseball. While a ninja should be able to keep his balance even on a marble, when you're drunk it's no easy feat, so Hinata hesitated, but finally agreed.

Wrong choice, the first 5 seconds had started off easy, after that, trying to keep balance on that baseball was hell.

_Oh, no... I'm losing my balance! This is not good, I have to keep going, I have to keep going... Only 10 more seconds, come on. Oh, no! I'm gonna fall down, I'm gonna fall down on... N-Naruto!_

Once Hinata lost her balance it was obvious she was gonna fall down right in the place where Naruto was, Naruto got ready to catch her, however, in his drunkness Naruto went too far with his movements, approaching Hinata too much. While he caught Hinata's body softly with his hands, his face moved in the wrong direction, and their lips touched.

_W-what!..._

Unsure as to what his reaction should be, Naruto just stayed in the same same position, not daring to move even to breath. The rest of the team just watched surprised, to the scene, that seemed to last for an eternity, when it really took just about 4 seconds before... That's right: Before Hinata fainted.

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"Man... That really was one hell of a party..." Maki commented as he got up, realizing that the whole team had stayed at Tenten's. He woke up to find that the whole living room was messed up. And began to pick up a few things. All the men were sleeping in that room, then he turned to look at Naruto, an kicked him to wake him up. "Morning..." Maki said as Naruto opened his eyes, a bit hungover "Help me pick up the trash, and I'll help you get rid of that headache...".

"Hmmmm..." Naruto mumbled some cursing under his breath before getting up on his feet and starting to pick up garbage "Man, my head hurts as much like if I had just fought a thousand rounds with Tsunade-Oba-san...". "It's called a hungover, Naruto, get over it..." Maki replied as he kept picking up bottles of beer then he kicked Shikamaru "Hey, you, I know YOU are not hungover, so wake the hell up and help...". "Don't bug me..." Shikamaru replied, rolling over and trying to fall asleep again.

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"Hinata-chan" a voice sounded far, far away. Hinata tried to recognise it, but couldn't.

"Hinata-chan!" the voice grew stronger, and Hinata finally placed it. It was Sakura's voice, but why could she hear Sakura's voice when she was barely waking up?.

_Now I remember..._

Hinata opened her eyes to find that she wasn't in her house, but somewhere else, she turned around to find the room filled with stuffed animals, weapons and scrolls...

_Must be Tenten's room..._

Then she turned to the door and saw Sakura and Tenten. "You finally woke up! You had us worried!" Tenten said, entering the room and seating on the bed. "I-I'm sorry..." Hinata said, finally getting up. "It's alright!" Sakura replied "You just worried us when you passed out like that...". "... Passed... out?" Hinata asked as she tried to remember what exactly had happened last night. Then she remembered.

_D-did I really...! No... can't be... please, don't let it be true... Wait, better yet... Please, let it be true..._

"Yeah, you passed out just after you accidently kissed with Naruto!" Tenten reminded her quite unceremoniously.

_It was true... it did happen!_

"So, your first kiss..." Sakura grinned as she saw Hinata blush furiously "How was it?". Hinata didn't dare to answer, it was an accident, it just happened. And she didn't know if it was good or bad. "I-I... don't..." Hinata said, stuttering enlessly once again. "Too bad, it was an accident... But well you've got the whole next 6 months to give it another shot..." Tenten said, grinning and patting her back.

_6 months! After what happened yesterday... I'm gonna have to spend the next 6 months with Naruto-kun... No way..._

Hinata was about to faint again, just from realising that mere fact, until Sakura interrupted her trip to darkness by using her medical chakra to relax her. "Hey, don't even think about passing out on us again..." Sakura said "You don't want to make Naruto worry once again...". "What!" Hinata asked as her mind took control again, upon hearing Sakura's words. "Yeah, he was incredibly concerned after you passed out..." Tenten said, with a grin on her face "Carried you to my bed himself... and asking Sakura to take care of you...". "Really!" Hinata asked, not believing her own ears.

_Great! Just the day that Naruto decided to carry me in her arms, and I'm too busy passing to even notice..._

"Relax!" Sakura told Hinata, while she handed her her clothes. "If you want to thank him, the guys are downstairs in the living room right now, I'll even come with you, so that you don't pass out...".

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"Hey, Naruto! Hinata's already awake..." Tenten announced as she came down the stairs once the guys had finished cleaning the living room. "Really! Is she OK?" Naruto asked concernedly to Tenten, throwing the garbage bag he was carrying over to Maki. "Yeah, she's fine!" Tenten replied, patting him on the shoulder. "She'll come down in a minute, alright?". "OK!" Naruto sighed, relief in his voice. Hinata was always passing out on him and normally it wouldn't have concerned him, except this time she was a bit drunk and she had fallen down. Naruto wanted to make sure she'd be alright.

"N-Naruto-kun..." a voice called from up the stairs, a shy awkward voice that Naruto would have recognised anywhere, and that he couldn't be happier to hear. "Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled as he walked up the stairs, seeing Hinata and Sakura coming down, Naruto inmediately went to Hinata reaching out to her shoulders with both hands "Are you alright!". "I-I'm fine, thanks..." Hinata said, stuttering and beginning to blush. "Are you sure!" Naruto asked, "you look a bit flustered". "She's fine, Naruto, take it easy..." Sakura said with a smile, patting Hinata in the back "I give you my word as a medical nin...". "Alright! If Sakura-chan says so..." Naruto sighed smiling at Hinata."A-ah... Naruto-kun... ah... about yesterday..." Hinata said, blushing even further "I-I'm sorry... I...". "Don't worry about it..." Naruto interrupted "It was my clumsy movements that made 'that' happen... I should be apologising...". "N-No... don't worry..." Hinata said.

"Alright, kids!" Maki announced interrupting everything. "Sorry to interrupt your romance, but we're leaving tonight! So pack your bags and meet me at the gates of Konoha at 7:00pm today!". At Maki's comment, Naruto and Hinata blushed, wich were Maki's intentions in the first place. "Until then, goodbye!" Maki yelled as he jumped to the roof and left. After that, one by one, all of the teenagers left for their home... Starting with Shino and Shikamaru, the last one who was talking about getting home and taking a nap. Then Hinata, and sakura who volunteered to walk Hinata home, just in case. Naruto was the last one to leave. A thoughtful expression as he walked off.

"Why did I blush like that!" Naruto asked himself as he walked home.

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Alright, this was a lot more work than the other two chapters...

Mainly because I didn't know how the celebration would go... But I think it went rather well...

**Next chapter:**

The group leaves for their mission! Neji's secret assignment! The Hayabusa clan finally shows its skills!


	4. Chapter 4: Leaving Konoha! The sudden in

Ok, moving on!

Now, this message is for Dragon Man 180:

If you have any ideas for my story... Then PM, don't post them in the reviews, reviews are supposed to be for reviewing...

--------------------

**The Origins**

**Chapter 4: Leaving Konoha! The sudden interception!**

Right next to the gates of the Konoha ninja village, Maki Hayabusa waited, along with his two fellow clansmen, Hasashi and Shirai for the Konoha Chuunin. The night was young, and it was mandatory that they left at this hour, a Hayabusa Ninja does not travel in daylight unless he has no other choice. The first ones to arrive were Sakura and Tenten, followed by Shikamaru and Shino, then Hinata arrived, all of them wearing small well packed bags, as Maki had indicated the day before. The last one to arrive was Naruto, who was late, and yawned loudly. This fact annoyed Maki a little bit, but he was willing to let it pass for now.

"You're late" Sakura complained as Naruto joined the group. "Yeah, sorry about that... I fell asleep... since I didn't get much sleep last night...". "None of us did, baka..." Shikamaru replied leaning on the wall, and looking up the stars "And still we were all in time!". "Yeah, Naruto... I think the only one who got some rest last night was Hinata!" Tenten said, making the shy blue haired girl flush at the memory of what made her faint last night, Naruto blushed a bit to, but no one noticed. "Naruto, a ninja must always be punctual" Shino commented "You should realise that". "Fine, fine..." Naruto said, feeling a bit scolded "Well then, shall we go!" Naruto asked, and everyone turned to look at Maki.

"OPEN THE GATES!" Maki yelled in response at the gate guards, who instantly complied. Once the gates were open, the group headed out. "Now let's go! Don't fall behind..." the blonde, black clothed ninja said as his two clansmen started to run into the woods, and he followed them closely, after that, the Konoha Chuunin decided to follow him.

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After an hour of running, Naruto couldn't help but smile."Whoa, this guys don't lose any time!" Naruto said in awe, marveled at the speed with wich the Hayabusa ninja were crossing the forest, and while he was supposedly talking to Shikamaru, Shikamaru payed little attention. "..." Shikamaru bore a thoughtful expression as he ignored Naruto's comment, then he spoke "Naruto... this is very important... When I count to three I want you to catch up with Maki-san and tackle him..."."What!" Naruto asked, but seeing Shikamaru's serious expression he just nodded "OK...". "One, Two... THREE!" Shikamaru counted, suddenly stopping and making a signal for the rest of the Konoha group to stop. Naruto accomplished his mission quite well. He approached Maki silently from behind and tackled him suddenly, at the moment he did this, a Kunai rain began all over the two Hayabusa ninja who were still running. And while one was obviously expecting the ambush since he stopped as well, the other had to pull out his sword and deflect the Kunai, since he was obviously too late to dodge them.

"HEY! What the...?" Shirai Hayabusa said, after sheathing his sword again. "Naruto-kun, Hasashi-san, what the hell...?" Maki asked as he turned to look at both, while Naruto just shrank his shoulders obviously as ignorant as Maki, the other Hayabusa ninja just unsheathed his sword and turned to look at his master's son. "Gomenasai, Maki-sama!" he said "But your father didn't want me to reveal the traitor until we had left Konoha...". "What traitor!" Maki asked as he turned to look to the directions that the Kunai had come from. And there, those who stood were...

"Shirai Hayabusa, of the Hayabusa ninja clan! You have been charged of treason by your clan's master, by petition of the Hayabusa ninja clan, we the Konoha ninja put you under arrest" Neji, the long haired, pale lavender eyed ninja announced, standing alone on a huge tree branch. "Shirai-san? Hasashi-san, do you mean that Shirai-san is..." Maki asked in disbelief as he stared at the presumed traitor. "That's right, Maki-sama" Hasashi replied getting ready to attack pointing at Shirai with his sword "That man is a traitor".

"He...! He he he he...!" Shirai began chuckling as he stared at the blonde Hayabusa ninja, "Too little, too late... Hasashi-san! The Aragami Cult already knows where the monsters are... And they will come for them...". "Shirai! You were a spy for the Aragami?" Maki asked in disbelief as he got up on his feet, Naruto right next to him. "That's right, you freaking monster! I am!" the traitor replied "It's been my mission ever since I joined your evil clan to take over your powers when you're most vulnerable and now's the time... ARAGAMI!".

After saying those words, Shirai launched himself at Maki unsheathing his sword. Instantly 5 other ninja appeared all of them dressed in traditional green ninja outfits with masks of demons covering their faces. One appeared behind Neji, two of them right where Sakura, Hinata, Tenten, Shikamaru and Shino. The other two appeared where Maki stood, right next to Naruto and Hasashi.

"What the hell is going on here?" Naruto asked as he suddenly dodged a Kunai from the newly appeared ninja. "Remember when I told we'd have to face a demonic cult?" Maki asked as he started doging Shirai's slashes easily, and without even unsheathing his sword "Well, these are some of the joyful members... May I introduce you to the Aragami?". "Maki-sama, focus on what you're doing! You may get hurt if you don't!" Hasashi, blocking the Aragami's shuriken with his sword, said as he heard the other two ninja on the clearing speaking. "I'm sorry, Hasashi-san it's just incredible how much we've all ben underestimated..." Maki said, still dodging Shirai's attacks "They seriously thought that weaklings like these would defeat us!".

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled as he saw Naruto dodging the attacks of the newly appeared enemies, Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Sakura. "Don't worry, Hinata chan, these guys are nothing to Naruto! We've got our own problems to worry about here come on...". "They've dissappeared... !" Shikamaru said, when he suddenly lost the two Aragami that had appeared next to them out of sight. "Where the hell are they!"Tenten asked, already pulling out a scroll, as if by reaction Hinata inmediately Hinata made a hand seal and activated her bloodline limit. "BYAKUGAN!" she said, and suddenly the world opened up around her, allowing her to see more and further than anyone else could "Sakura-san! Behind that tree on your right!". Sakura responded by punching straight trough the tree and grabbing the shirt of whoever was behind. "Shikamaru-kun, Tenten-san, right behind you both!" Hinata said, and having said this Shikamaru made a hand seal and his shadows inmediately extended from behind him to the shadow of another man. Shikamaru whistled amusedly as he felt the man trying to move his hand to throw a kunai, and then his legs to run. "No use, pal..." Shikamaru laughed, while there was almost no light to create a shadow for his Shadow jutsu, the moon's light was about enough to create all the shadow that he needed.

As for Neji, his fight was much faster. After he was attacked by the ninja that appeared right next to him, with a swift slash of a sword, Neji ducked and inmediately activated his Byakuugan, then he turned to look directly at the face of his attacker with his white eyes, and smiled. "Hakke Rokkujou Yonshou!" Neji yelled in a loud voice as he hit his opponents 64 Chakra points. In the end, Neji's opponent laid unconcious on the tree branch in wich Neji stood.

"Fouton: Kazeken!" Naruto said as he used his hand to release his wind chakra at his opponent, who didn't even have a chance to dodge before his sword was suddenly broken by the wind technique that Naruto used. "You're are lucky that I aimed at just your sword" Naruto said, approaching his opponent slowly" The opponent tried to throw a Kunai at him, however his Kunai was cut in half before reaching Naruto. "How do you like my new wind techniques?" Naruto asked as he finally finished the guy off by punching him straight in the face, the masked man inmediately fell unconcious.

"Shirai... you called me a monster..." Maki said as he kept dodging his treacherous clansman's attacks. "That's right! The only reason I tried to approach you was because of the power that you've got locked inside of you... However I was instructed to wait until we could get our hands on the Kyuubi brat!" Shirai replied as he kept striking though his efforts were useless. "I understand, you look at me and you only see the Black Dragon... the Kokuryu..." Maki said, jumping to dodge yet another slash "But tell me something, have you ever really looked at it?". "What? What do you mean by that, brat?" Shirai asked trying to fool Maki by using his legs instead of the sword, but not getting much result. "I see, so you haven't... You will now...". Inmediately after saying those words, Maki unsheathed his sword and jumped over Shirai's head, stretching out to make a small cut in the shoulder of his opponent, then he landed, inmediately sheathing his sword, while his opponent was marveled at the incredible speed the kid had. "You're defeated, Shirai..." Maki said, without even turning to look at him. "What do you mean I'm defeated? I'm still alive and..." suddenly Shirai stopped, once he saw Maki's eyes, they were different, there was something about them now. A darkness he had never seen before.

"KOKURYUUGAN!" Maki yelled, his eyes suddenly turning reptile like. Suddenly, Shirai understood, he understood Maki's words when he spoke about looking at the Black Dragon. The great creature stood before him, and looking at its eyes, he could sense all the dead, feel all the suffering and pain that the creature had caused. After what seemed like an eternity for him, but only a few seconds in real life, Shirai was dead, his nose and ears bleeding were his eyes were open and red. Hasashi, who had defeated the last of the ninja by slashing trough him with his sword, just stared at the fallen traitor.

"He was my sister's husband..." Maki said, in a low voice looking at Hasashi. "He called himself my brother... and yet..." tears ran down the face of the heir of the Hayabusa, as he stared at the dead traitor. The rest of the Aragami had fallen, captured by the Konoha Chuunin.

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"So, Neji, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked, once they had finally tied all of the Aragami ninja. "Hokage-sama sent me, at the request of that man..." Neji replied, pointing to Hasashi "It seems that this man is one of the members of the cult that has recovered the Black Dragon Sword...". "Neji-nii-san, a-are you sure about that..." Hinata asked, staring at Maki's concerned expression, while she hadn't bothered to get to know him that well, she still fell sorry that someone so close would betray him like that.

"I am sorry, Hayabusa-san" Neji said when he turned to look at Maki, then he turned to Hinata, "Hinata, that was a great use of Byakuugan...". "Thank you, N-Neji-nii-san" Hinata replied "It has been thanks to the training you have given me...". "Ah, Hinata, don't be so modest!" Tenten said, patting Hinata on the back, "Thanks to you, Shikamaru and I didn't get surprised by them!". "Yeah... it's true... I didn't expect those guys to be there at the moment..." Shikamaru said as well "It was a good idea to use Byakuugan when you did...". Hinata blushed, it had been a long time since anyone had complimented her skills as a ninja.

"Naruto, when did you learn to use Wind techniques!" Sakura said, impressed at the blonde loud ninja "Those were some impressive new jutsus...". "Thanks, Sakura... Kakashi-sensei taught me..." Naruto replied, thoughtful. "What's the matter!" Sakura asked, concernedly "You wouldn't usually waste such an opportunity to remind the world how great you are...". "Sakura-chan, can you do me favor?" Naruto asked as he began to walk away "Please, ask Hayabusa-san to follow me into that clearing... it's important...". Sakura understood what he meant once he remembered what Shirai had said, he had called them both 'monsters'.

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"You called for me Naruto?" Maki asked as he entered the small clearing. "Yeah... I did..." Naruto replied, ripping some leaves off a tree branch. "That guy called me a monster..." Naruto said, as he began to cast the leaves into the wind and cutting them with his wind chakra. "Yeah, sorry... about that..." Maki started, however he was interrupted. "That's not what bothers me, he's an ignorant, all ignorants are like that... So, I'm used to it..." Naruto said "What bothers me is... that he called you a monster as well... and you killed him painfully for it".

"..." Maki was speechless, but quickly made a smile and started explaining. "I'm not used to being called that... I guess..." he said, a sad expression on his face. "My father destroyed the Black Dragon Sword 20 years ago, and with it, he destroyed the demonic power it locked inside..." Maki began speaking, looking up into the night sky "However what my father didn't know is that the Black Dragon is inmortal... even through its spirit, it will always survive". "So..." Naruto asked, listening intently to Maki's story. "So, the broken sword pieces kept feeding off the evil ambitions of those who sought them out... the evil spirit within grwoing more powerful, until a new Black Dragon was born from one of the halves of the sword... It's evil spirit seeking revenge against those who destroyed it...".

Maki kept going "When that happened,my sister and I, who had just been born, and our parents and Hasashi-san were all that was left of what once was the great Hayabusa ninja clan... and...". "And..." Naruto asked, understanding Maki's pain. "The techniques that had once been used to kill the Black Dragon and seal it's spirit in the sword had been lost... However, my dad had heard that a seal expert lived in Konoha, and was trying to develop a new technique to seal demons..." Maki explained "He joined forces with this seal expert, and together they developed a technique powerful enough to seal The Black Dragon... And between both of them, they fought the demon... however, in the middle of the battle they discovered that the seal was incomplete without a pure soul... So they took a newly born... and sealed the demon within him... Later, that same technique was modified and used to trap the Kyuubi within you...". "So... the seal expert from Konoha was...?" Naruto asked, getting conclusions from what he just heard. "That's right... The Yondaime Hokage... he actually obtained the title after sealing the Black Dragon...".

"... Hayabusa-san... Why did you ask me to come on this mission?" Naruto asked. "The seal of the Kyuubi is weakening and the Akatsuki have begun hunting the Bijuu with the same intensity that the Akatsuki does..." "The real mission here is not to retrieve the Black Dragon Sword from them, since what the Aragami have is just a half of the old Black Dragon's spirit... The real mission, is to turn the hunters into prayers, my father's and Hokage's intentions, are to turn us both into Ninjas powerful enough to defeat the Aragami and the Akatsuki...". "And what about Sasuke?" Naruto asked, since that was the reason he had come along in the first place. "You'll see him, and you'll fight him before you expect..." Maki replied, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder, then walking off to return with the rest of the group. Behind the bushes, a shady sillouette could be seen, listening to the conversation... after both ninjas were gone, the silloutte revealed itself, as a concerned blue haired girl.

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata said thoughtfully as he saw both blonde ninja's leaving the clearing.

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Hinata was pretty quiet and thoughtful once she returned to the rest of the group, Neji had been interrogating and reading the minds of the captured Aragami for about 20 minutes now, and he had obtained some valuable info. The captured Aragami revealed that they had ambushes set up all the way to the Lightning country, they also revealed, conveniently, the positions of those ambushes that they did know about. Giving the group enough information for Shikamaru to trace a path around them in the map. After minutes of interrogating the men, and determining that they had given all the useful information they could give, Hasashi cut their throats before anyone could stop him.

"DON'T...!" Neji tried to stop Hasashi, but it was too late, the men were already dead. "Sorry, but these were my orders..." Hasashi said, as the rest of the group just stared at him "We should keep moving...". "Is your clan always that cold?" Naruto asked, since both Hayabusa in the group had already killed "It's vile to murder someone who can't defend himself". "Naruto... stop it!" Neji said, placing an arm between him and Hasashi, "A ninja cannot disobey orders, you know that... No matter how vile it is, Hasashi-san was just carrying out his duties as a Hayabusa, and we have no right to question that...". Naruto looked down to the floor, and understood, but still he suddenly stopped liking Hasashi.

"Let's all keep going..." Neji said, "we'll keep running 'til 2 o'clock... then we'll find somewhere to sleep until sunrise... That way, we'll all get to rest from this battle...". The whole group agreed, and they jumped to the branches of the nearest trees and started to make their way. In the middle of it all, there was only one word in Hinata's mind.

_Kyuubi..._

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"Hinata-sama" Neji said as he approached her, while they were all running, "Are you ok? You look concerned, has the battle upset you?". "No, Neji-nii-san... I do my missions with Shino, so even if I don't like it, I've grown used to watching people get killed..." she replied, still thoughful. "Then is it something else?" Neji asked. "I... I'm OK, please Neji-nii-san, trust me a least this time..." Hinata said, not wantin to say anything, afraid that Neji may not be supposed to know Naruto's secret. "Very well, Hinata-sama".

"Sakura-san!" Hinata yelled, catching up with her pink-haired friend and running besides her "I-I need to talk with you...". "About what, Hinata-chan?" Sakura asked, wondering what this was about, she was still a little bit upset with all the killing. "It would... be best i-if we talked in private..." Hinata said, and Sakura understood. They both started running slower so that they would end up in the group's far rear end. Then they picked up their speed again.

"So, what is it, Hinata-chan?" Sakura asked "It's about Naruto, right?". "R-right..." Hinata blushed, but then her expression turned into a serious one. "Sakura-san... I... I-I think I might have overheard something in Naruto's conversation with Hayabusa-san that I wasn't supposed to know..." Hinata explained shyly. And every alarm in Sakura's mind went off, fully aware of what that conversation had been about, since he'd heard the Hayabusa traitor call Maki a monster. "Hinata-chan... what exactly did you hear?" Sakura asked, her tone suddenly alarmed, and Hinata noticed it too. "So... you do know about it?... the Kyuubi..." Hinata asked. "... You can't... you can't tell anyone... OK? Hinata-chan... promise me you won't tell anyone..." Sakura said, her tone each time more alarmed. "I-I won't... I promise... i-it's just that..." Hinata tried to explain herself, but couldn't find the words, then magical inspiration came to her, "N-Naruto-kun has lived his whole life bearing with that burden... I-I just want him to... to know that he's not alone... t-that I can be there to support him... I-I want to be there for him, Sakura-san...". Sakura's surprise was huge when she heard this words come from Hinata, she felt happy, suddenly. Knowing that Hinata actually loved Naruto in such a pure and good way made Sakura happy. "Just Sakura..." Sakura said, with a smile on her face. "Eh?..." Hinata was confused, since she didn't understand what Sakura meant. "From now on, just call me Sakura... no 'san' or 'chan' or anything..." Sakura explained, now it was Hinata the one who was surprised, and happy too. "Thanks Sakura-s... Sakura... just call me Hinata then..." Hinata replied, happy about finally having such trust with her new friend.

"Hinata..." Sakura said a few minutes later, "If you want... we could talk to him, you know? Once we set up camp...". "W-What! But... Sakura..." Hinata wanted to find an excuse not to do it, however this time, inspiration didn't come. "Don't worry, he'll surely be glad to know that he's got someone else to count on..." Sakura explained smiling, and Hinata couln't argue with Sakura's smile, so she ended up smiling as well, and nodding.

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There, it's complete... I dedicate this chapter to Kyuubi Kunoichi and Rin Hitokiri, who were the first people to fav this story...

I think this one came out a little sloppy tough... I didn't have enough time to write it as well as I would have liked... anyway... If you've got reviews give them to me... REVIEW! PLEASE...!

**Next chapter:**

Hinata knows, what's Naruto's reaction! An unexpected visit in the camp... And, also... Shirai, the traitor, reborn!


	5. Chapter 5: Crossing to the Lightning cou

Like... awesome! More and more people are getting e-mail alerts for this story, I would like to thank all of those who did...

Give me more reviews, please...

Now we begin chapter 5...

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**The Origins**

**Chapter 5: Crossing to the Lightning country! Orochimaru's plot!**

"Hokage-sama! Jiraiya-sama!" an ANBU member yelled, running down the hall to Hokage's office and entering without even bothering to knock. "Yes?" Tsunade asked, her serious expression not even changing. "We have news from the Forest, apparently Hyuuga Neji succeeded in his mission... however the Aragami members are dead..." The Akatsuki soldier reported, his exhaustion noticeable even through his mask. "Thanks, Rikuto-san, you may retire..." Tsunade said, completely unsurprised. Rikuto, the ANBU newbie, was confused by this, but he left never the less, not daring to disobey a direct order from the Hokage.

"Well, we were expecting that... but it would have been a nice little detail from their part not to kill them..." Jiraiya said, spitting the words with a little bit of resentment. "Calm down, Jiraiya... According to your info, these captured Aragami wouldn't have been able to tell us anything... Anything useful, at least..." Tsunade said, with an annoyed tone in her voice as well. "We'll need to catch bigger fishes..." Jiraiya said "You've given any thoughts to my latest plan?". "Yeah... I have..." the Gondaime said with a smile on her face, "Tell your men to get ready... You'll leave right away!". "Ha! Nice decision, Tsunade" Jiraiya said smiling, and then turned to open the door and walk away.

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As the time passed, Naruto and the rest of the group, including the two Hayabusa nins, grew tired, even in spite of the great stamina they all had, the only one who wasn't breathing heavy was Naruto, and he was already sweating slighthly. Noticing this, Neji approached Maki and Hasashi, and just gave them a look signaling to the rest of the team. Understanding Neji's point, Maki made a stop signal with his hand.

"We'll set up camp here!" Maki said "We'll rest 1 hour and sleep 5, then continue our way...". "Finally..." Sakura sighed in relief, sitting down. "About time..." Shikamaru said, breathing heavily, and holding his knees. "It was beginning to become tiresome..." Shino said, while it was noticeable he was breathing heavily his expression did not show much about anything else. "How far away from our objective are we?" Naruto asked, but then another question popped into his mind "Where are we heading, right now? For starters...". "You were running like hell even though you didn't have any clue as to we were going?" Neji asked, amused by the revelation, but not surprised. "We are travelling to the old ruins of the Hayabusa ninja village, hidden somewhere in the border of the Earth and the Lightning countries..." Maki replied, catching his breath as well "We'll investigate there, first... it seems that the Aragami performed rituals there for a while...".

After a while, a fire had been set and sleeping bags had been unpacked, Shikamaru didn't even say a word before falling asleep, while Shino just sat besides the fire and stared drectly at it for some time, falling asleep after a while, without anyone even noticing. Hinata and Sakura both retired to the nearest river to get some water for the journey.

"So, Neji-san, Tsunade-oba-chan sent you here?" Naruto asked, approaching the lavender eyed jounin while he collected logs for the fire. "Yeah... she did, there are also a couple of ANBU members following us, to report our actions... and she's probably sent even more..." Neji said, with a serious expression. "Neji, is this thing really that big?" Naruto asked, really concerned. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun, Hokage-sama wouldn't send us out to a mission that we couldn't handle..." Neji replied, and Naruto smiled. "I guess you're right..." Naruto said, smiling, "I'm heading off to bed now". "Naruto-kun..." Neji said, placing a hand on his shoulder "Sakura-san asked me to tell you to sought her out before you went to bed, she didn't tell me why... but she said she would be by the river...". "Really, that's weird... Thanks, Neji-san..." Naruto thought, then he headed off to the river, waving to Neji.

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"Naruto, over here..." Sakura signaled to him whispering when she saw the blonde ninja and waved for him to come in her direction. "Sakura, what's the matter? Neji told me to come here and... well, what is it?" Naruto asked as he approached Sakura, who was sitting in a large rock by the river, near a waterfall, the waterfall had various rock formations and a lot of them were very good to hide, so as soon as Nartuo approached, Sakura made him kneel behind one of them and take a look at the waterfall. Right there, walking in the water, there was a sillouette, one of a nude woman that made a strange dance with her feet and her hands, and every movement of her hands was mirrored by the water of the river. Naruto was mesmerized by the image, she had seen her before, that girl...

"I know her..." Naruto said, blushing a bit, unable to look away from the beautiful image. "Really? Then go with her and say 'hello'..." Sakura said, grabbing Naruto and throwing him to the river with her inhuman strenght. When Naruto landed, using the water walking technique not to sink in the river, he found himself staring at a pair of pale lavender eyes, that he found beautiful, and yet familiar. "Hinata-chan?" he said as he realized that the ultra-pretty girl he was actually staring at, that night when he was searching for the Bikochu, and this night when Sakura called her to the river, was Hinata, he also realized that the girl wasn't nude (dissapointed? You pervert...), she was actually wearing a purple to piece swimsuit, not too daring, but still quite attractive. "N-Naruto-kun... what are you.. wh-what are you doing here?" Hinata asked, she was actually expecting Sakura, since she'd told her that they would plan on how to tell Naruto about the Kyuubi thing.

_Wait a minute... I... I'm in a swimsuit... Naruto-kun is looking at me in my swimsuit... This is not good. Is it? Where's Sakura...?_

"I-I... I was..." Hinata blushed furiously as she tried to explain why she was wearing a swimsuit in the middle of the night and playing in the water. Naruto, too found himself excusing himself, seeing that the present situation could be misinterpreted as him being a peeping Tom "I-I was just...". When they both realized that the other was about to speak they shut up and then blushed. "I-I should return to camp and give you a moment to get dressed..." Naruto said, turning around and about to leave, having trouble to keep up with the Water walking jutsu. "Wait... Naruto-kun..." Hinata said, suddenly, "C-Can I... I-I.. was hoping I could speak with you for a moment?". "Eh?... OK, but... don't you think you should get dressed first?". Hinta blushed, realizing he was right and then walked to the shore, she put on her pants and top but left the usual baggy jacket she always wore there. Naruto tried not to look, then after a moment, Hinata walked onwater right in front of him and blushed as she tried to speak. "I-I... I wanted to... I..." Hinata was embarassed she had never stuttered so much before even in front of Naruto.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, concerned that something might be scaring the girl. "N-Naruto-kun... I... I wanted you to know... I... I'm your friend... a-and... I... will always... I want to be able to help you too... you know? You... you've helped me a lot before and..." Hinata kept speaking, each time stuttering even more, Naruto calmed down however, and made one of those big wide smiles he always made, making Hinata blush even more and stutter even more. "Hinata-chan, calm down... I already know we're friends... and I do count on you... and I'm glad that you feel that way too..." Naruto said, glad that Hinata had called him her friend. Hinata was finally able to stop her mouth from rambling and took a deep breath. Then the words came out. "N-Naruto-kun, I know about the Kyuubi..." she said, looking away. "Eh!... Hinata-chan... how did you...?" Naruto asked, suddenly every alarm in his body began to sweat, and his heart started pounding. "I-I'm sorry, Naruto-kun... After the battle, when I couldn't find you I was worried and while I was looking for you in the forest I overheard your conversation with Hayabusa-san... I-I'm sorry...".

_He hates me now... doesn't he?_

"You hate me now, don't you, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, with a grim expression on his face, an expression that Hinata had never seen in his face, a defeated expression. "N-NO! Not at all... As a matter of fact... I was afraid you'd hate me..."Hinata replied "I could never hate you... Naruto-kun...". When Hinata aid those words, Naruto's expression turned into a smile, and he hugged Hinata relieved. "... I-I was afraid you would..." Naruto said, while tears welled up in his eyes. "Naruto-kun... I..." Hinata found herself blushing, and her hear beating, but it was different this time. This time she wasn't panicking, she wasn't afraid. She was happy... Naruto's arms were... warm.

_I love him... I really do... And I'm not afraid anymore._

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata asked, concernedly while she returned his embrace "Has it... has it been hard? To have... that monster inside you? "Yeah..." Naruto replied, finally letting go of Hinata. "I didn't know... at first... that the Kyuubi was sealed inside me..." Naruto said, sitting down on a rock in the river's shore "I just remember that every grown up in the village hated me, that they did their best to ignore me... and that they turned their backs to me all the time, pushing my friends to do the same...". "Then, Mizuki-sensei from the academy tricked me into stealing something for me, and then told me... he told me that the monster that had caused so many deaths, so much pain... was sealed inside me by the Yondaime... and that would have destroyed me, except... except that I had Iruka-sensei by my side... and later Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-san... and...". "And Sasuke-san..." Hinata said, completing the sentence and smiling. "We'll get him back... you know that, right?" Hinata said, in an optimistic tone of voice that surprised Naruto, but then he smiled, and nodded, determination showing in his eyes. Afer that, Naruto and Hinata spent another couple of hours speaking. Both feeling happy, and confortable with each other for the first time.

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"So, this is him?" A black haired ninja, with eyes so red that they could pierce your soul, wich strange markings in the pupils, and wearing traditional japanese robes, loose and tied only by a white silk rope, asked standing next to a dead body, while Orochimaru stood beside it as well. "Yeah, this is him..." Orochimaru replied "The Hayabusa traitor, according to my data on the Aragami...". "And how are we gonna use him?" Sasuke asked, "He's been dead over 7 hours right now, we should just catch up with those Konoha ninja, and kill them...". "No... If we do that, we'll catch unnecesary attention, my young pupil..." the serpent Sanin replied, with an evil grin on his face "However, if we use this guy... he will do our jobs for us without putting us in any risk...". "I should have killed Naruto when I got the chance..." Sasuke spat. "No... what you did was the right thing to do... because now he'll lead us to an even greater power..." Orochimaru explained, while extending his hands to paint a seal in the forehead of the death corpse. "You're mine now..." Orochimaru thought as he transferred his chakra to the seal, wich started to consume the corpse like fire...

"Orochimaru-sama" Kabuto, a blue haired ninja with a purple outfit and glasses yelled as he arrived, moving swiftly trough the forest, wth his Kunai in hand "We have to leave, Konoha in sending ANBU for the corpses right now...". "Very well, Sasuke..." Orochimaru said, leaving the burning corpse behind.

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"Maki-sama..." Hasashi called once he found his master looking at the moon sitting on a rock on top of a water fall. "Hi, Hasashi-san..." Maki said, with a melancholic expression on his face. "You should be asleep... Maki-sama, I..." Hasashi said, but looking at the expression on Maki's face he decided otherwise. "Maki-sama..." Hasashi said, taking off his mask, and revealing his wrinkled face, with a white moustache crossing it. "I'm guessing... this is about what Shirai-san said...". "Yeah... I guess..." Maki said, "I have known my whole life that I would be antagonized by the ignorants, and that I would be hunted down by the greedy... But... Shirai-san was... he pretended to be our family, he betrayed us... without any remorse, and tried to kill me. And I... I ended up allowing that monster inside me, to get the best of me...".

"Maki-sama... a ninja's life will always be marked by death... your grandfather taught me that... but trough helping your father to rebuild the clan I realized something else, as well..." Hasashi explained "That... when a ninja enjoys the deaths of others... rather than his own life, and the joys ir can bring... he's lost... he's a monster... not a human, at least not anymore". Hasashi continued speaking, while Maki just stared at the moon "Inside you, a powerful demon has been locked, and you have been hunted down and betrayed more times than I can count, but you still manage to smile, to love your family, to make new friends... Maki-sama... in my eyes, you're the true definition of an angel, and you are the best hope for our clan...". "Hasashi-san..." Maki smiled after the old man spoke "Thanks... I guess I'm not the only angel around here though...". Maki pointed at the bottom of the waterfall, next to wich, Naruto and Hinata were speaking. "As I understand it... that guy has been through much too... and he still keeps those incredible energies... I guess... I guess that we're not our demons after all" Maki said, smiling.

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Sorry to end it right now... but it seemed right.

**Next chapter:**

The Akatsuki attack... Shirai returns to the Aragami! Jiraiya's move!


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